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Forum nameThe Lesson Archives
Topic subjectKung Fu Kenny, Bow to the Sensei
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=17&topic_id=174729&mesg_id=174939
174939, Kung Fu Kenny, Bow to the Sensei
Posted by Tiger Woods, Mon Apr-17-17 09:41 PM
"If I tell you I'm good, probably you will say I'm boasting. But if I tell you I'm not good, you'll know I'm lying"
- Bruce Lee

So fitting that the lead single is titled "Humble" isn't it? Because with a body of work like his, and such a gorgeous and fully-realized effort in DAMN, Kendrick has every right to rub his peers faces in it.

Really though he has no peers. J.Cole or Big Sean certainly couldn't make something so meticulous that still sounds so soulful and effortless. And, stating the obvious, we all know Drake definitely couldn't do something like this if his life depended on it.

But Drake is relevant in this case because of the great foil he makes for when compared to Kenny. Not for the dozens of obvious surface level comparisons either, but as a clear contrast in essence. Drake, like Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or Beyonce, is an enterprise. You can practically hear the 5 different A&R opinions he's satisfying on "More Life", one blatant attempt at serving a specific demographic after another. "Know Yourself" says Drake, a mantra he repeats incessantly. But the only one of these mainstream rappers going today who clearly knows himself is Kendrick Lamar. And that's why the album is called "DAMN."

as in "DAMN." guess I gotta go finally be the man now. Guess I have to make the anthem album. Guess I must go realize my full potential, be who I'm supposed to be.

DAMN. is the sound of a more mature Kendrick Lamar accepting his fate as the greatest big rapper going today, the greatest since Jay in 01 or Em in 03 or maybe Wayne in 06. He hasn't fully shaken the self-doubt and paranoia of overnight superstardom that he wrestles with on Butterfly. But he's accepting this megastar status and even figuring out in real time how he arrived to this point.

The first track on the album hears him being killed by a stranger when all he wanted to do was help, just like all he wanted to do was make music for people and he lost his anonymity and became a de facto social justice figure in the process. But now he's realized he was destined to do it, he's made of the real goods, it's in his DNA.

What follows is a blow-by-blow account of what he's dealt with, what he anticipates he'll still have to deal with, with breaks taken to remind you he's the shit and deserves to be. Again, he's not running from the crown anymore, he's owning it. That's the whole point of HUMBLE.

This is the Eminem Show redux. The big, clean, anthemic sound of a rap phenom realizing that it's too late to go back to being a Bruce Banner, instead accepting and celebrating his Hulk-like status atop the game. And boy does it smash.